Sermons 203

The Maurist monks, in their edition of the works of St. Ambrose (Paris, 1690, p. 439), judge, rightly and deservedly, that this excellent sermon ought to be ascribed to Maximus rather than to Ambrose. For in many manuscripts, and those especially ancient, we see it adorned with the name of St. Maximus: in the Sangallensis no. 46, in an Ambrosian codex, in codex 90 of Santa Croce in Jerusalem no. 13, and in the Bobbio codex, with the title On the Marvels; in others of later date, in codex 99 of Santa Croce in Jerusalem no. 47, in Vercellensis 66, in the Laurentian Plut. XIV, and in Plut. XVII no. 56, and in codex 172 formerly of the library of the cathedral chapter of the metropolitan church of Florence, with the title On the Marvels, or Concerning the Two Little Ships; in another, Laurentian Plut. XIV, p. 236: On the Marvels, or the Miracles which Jesus did in this world;

in the Laurentian codex vol. XXXVI: A sermon of St. Maximus the bishop on the marvels, upon the Gospel of Luke chapter V: When the multitudes pressed upon him to hear the word of God; and in the codices Basilica of St. Peter shelf-mark 7 A, and three Vallicellian codices, 25, 7 A, and A 9. In print, moreover, the same is read in Combefis, vol. VII of the Library of the Fathers, p. 45, and in Muratori, vol. IV of the Anecdota, and in several other later writers. Therefore it must be reckoned that it was rashly attributed by some to St. Ambrose. How great are the marvels of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the worker we can understand from this Gospel reading, which describes what great benefits were bestowed by him upon the people, so that the crowds of men, provoked to hear him, rather pressed in upon him than asked;

and they hoped for the medicine of salvation not through the grace of humility, but through the violence of importunity; so that, as the Gospel says (Luke 5), the crowds pressing in the Lord Jesus did not drive from him nor did he abandon, the Synagogue did not repel them, nor did reverence for his Divinity keep them back. For this is the way of the sick: that while they hope for a remedy for their ailments, they are held back from their importunate petition neither by place, nor by time, nor by shame; but the more he who heals brings healing, so much the more importunate is he who suffers.

Therefore, when the Lord Jesus, withdrawn from the pressing crowds, could not remain on the land, seeing two little ships on the sea, he boarded with all haste the one ship of Peter, so that by the very nature of the waters he might repel the violence of their importunity, since reverence for the teacher was by no means restraining it; and thereupon he began to pour forth from Peter's little ship the words of his teaching to men. See the mercy of the Saviour: he is indeed separated from men in body, yet he is joined to them by the profit of his teaching. Everywhere he shows mercy, everywhere he is of profit. Set upon the land, by his touch he heals the ailments of bodies; stationed upon the sea, by his teaching he cures the wounds of souls.

But let us see what that little ship of Simon Peter is, which of the two the Lord judged more suitable for teaching, which both keeps the Saviour safe from injury and lavishes eloquent words upon men of faith; for we find that the Lord had already sailed in another ship, and was assailed with grave injuries. For he sailed with Moses in the Red Sea, when he carried the people of Israel across through the streams of the waves; but he was afflicted with grave injuries, as he himself says in the Gospel to the Jews: If you believed Moses, you would believe me also (John 5). And the injury to the Saviour is the unbelief of the Synagogue. Therefore he chose the ship of Peter and forsakes that of Moses; that is, he spurns the faithless Synagogue and takes up the faithful Church.

For these ships were appointed as it were by God as leaders, that in this world, as upon a sea, they might fish out salvation for men, as the Lord says to the apostles: Come, I will make you fishers of men (Matt. 4). Of these two little ships, then, one is left at the shore empty and void, the other is led out into the deep laden and full; for the Synagogue is left empty on the beach, because it lost Christ along with the oracles of the prophets; but the Church, laden, is taken up into the deep, because it received the Lord along with the teaching of the apostles. The Synagogue, I say, remains upon the earth, as clinging to earthly workings; but the Church is called into the height, as searching out the deep mysteries of the heavens;

into that height, namely, of which the Apostle says: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! (Rom. 11). Therefore it is said to Peter: Put out into the deep (Luke 5), that is, into the depth of the discussions of the divine generation. For what is so deep as what Peter said to the Lord: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16)? What is so earthly as what the Jews said of the Lord: Is not this the son of Joseph the carpenter (Luke 4)? For the one, by a loftier counsel, approved the birth of Christ as of God; the others, with a viperous mind, judged the heavenly generation in a carnal way. Wherefore the Saviour says to Peter: For flesh and blood has not revealed this to thee, but my Father who is in heaven (Matt. 16). But to the Pharisees he says:

How can you speak good things, since you are evil? (Matt. 12). This ship of the Church alone, then, the Lord boarded, in which Peter was appointed master, the Lord saying: Upon this rock I will build my Church. This ship so sails upon the deep of this world that, though the world perish, it keeps unharmed all whom it takes on board. Its figure we already see in the Old Testament; for as Noah's ark, when the world was foundering, preserved unharmed all whom it had received, so also the Church of Peter, when the world is aflame, will present unharmed all whom it embraces; and as then, when the flood was past, a dove brought a sign of peace to Noah's ark, so also, when the judgment is past, Christ brings the joy of peace to the Church of Peter:

for he himself is the dove, or peace, as he promised, saying: But I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice (John 16). But since we read in Matthew (chapter 8) that this same little ship of Peter, from which the Lord now draws forth the mysteries of his heavenly teaching, was thrown into confusion when the winds rose while the Lord slept in it, so that all the apostles dreaded the peril of death, let us see what the reason is that one and the same little ship here in calm bestows teaching upon the peoples, while there in the storm strikes into the disciples the fear of death; especially since there too Simon Peter was present with the rest of the apostles. But this is the cause of the peril: Simon Peter was there, but Judas the betrayer was equally there.

For although the faith of the former founded the little ship, yet the treachery of the latter threw it into turmoil. There is calm where Peter alone sails; there is storm where Judas is joined to him. Though Peter was firm by his own merits, yet he was thrown into turmoil by the crimes of the betrayer. Therefore, while the disciples feared and Peter was in anguish, the Lord slept. It might perhaps seem strange that, while Peter was in anguish, the Lord slept: he slept for Peter, lest Judas should keep watch; thus by the fault of one the merits of all are shaken. Christ falls asleep, the blasts of the winds are stirred up;

for whoever admits sin at once both makes the Lord sleep for himself and raises up for himself a tempest of worldly spirits; and it is inevitable that a diabolical storm should rise up when the serenity of the Lord is at rest. Therefore, if by the sin of one Judas all the apostles are endangered, let us by this example beware of the faithless one, beware of the betrayer, lest through one many be tossed about. Nay rather, let us cast such a one out of the little ship, so that the Lord may not fall asleep in us but keep watch; and while he watches, that no storm of spiritual wickedness may shake us. For where faith is whole, there the Saviour teaches, watches, and rejoices; there is rest, there is calm, there is healing for all:

but where faithlessness is mingled with faith, there Christ grows sluggish, sleeps, and is slow to act; there is fear, there is storm, there is the peril of all: for according to our deeds the Lord sleeps for us or keeps watch.